Electronic medical devices (EMDs), which may be implantable or external, typically have a dedicated patient therapy manager (PTM) that patients use to interact with the medical device. PTMs, which may also be referred to as patient programmers, use software executed by an embedded microprocessor to perform communication tasks. PTMs are more secure than off-the-shelf computing devices, because PTMs are dedicated and customized to the task of interfacing with the EMD. PTMs generally run custom operating systems and are limited in their input/output capabilities.
EMDs also typically are configured to interact with a dedicated clinician programmer that may be used to perform advanced device setup and diagnostic capabilities. A clinician programmer may communicate directly with the EMD. Some clinician programmers may additionally communicate with a PTM. Like PTMs, clinician programmers are generally dedicated and customized to the task of interfacing with the EMD. Additionally, clinician programmers generally run custom operating systems and are limited in their input/output capabilities.